Comfort Food
by aruvqan
Summary: Ella in her kitchen at Rangeman, short and sweet.
1. Chapter 1

Comfort Food

* * *

Ella's PoV

What a BITCH. You are supposed to love and cherish your children, help them grow then free them. Not hold them prisoner and use emotional blackmail to control them. What does she think, this is the 50s?

I can make this better than she can, and my food doesn't come with a price.

* * *

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Bake a classic dessert! Buttery rich and caramelly pineapple take this yellow cake.

Prep Time 15 min Total Time 1 hr 10 min Servings 9

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter or margarine

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

9 slices pineapple in juice (from 14-oz can), drained

9 maraschino cherries without stems, if desired

1 1/2 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup shortening

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

1 Heat oven to 350 F. In 9-inch square pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple slices over brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.  
2 In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.  
3 Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan. Serve warm.

* * *

Ranger's POV

* * *

"Ranger, Go home. You have been sitting here for 3 days, you need to eat some real food, take a shower and get some sleep. The Doc says they will be keeping her in an induced coma for at least 3 more days." Bobby looks at the folder with Rangeman's copy of the hospital paperwork "She is doing as well as can be expected - you know there are 5 guys out front that will take turns sitting with Steph, she will not be alone. She does not need you collapsing and ending up in a bed somewhere else here."

Grudgingly Ranger gets up "You promise me you will call if *anything* changes, right?"

"You know we will. Promise."

Ranger scrubs his hand down his face and slowly moves out of the room as Bobby sits down and takes one of Steph's delicate hands in his bearspaw of a hand.

Tank pushes up off the wall he has been leaning on and heads down the hall to the garage with Ranger.

Exiting the Escalade that is Tank's regular ride, Ranger fobs the elevator open and hits the button for 7. As he exits the elevator, Ella stops him in the small foyer with a quick hug "Steph is strong, she will be back with us soon, sobrino. You know we are all praying for her."

Ranger returns her hug and mumbles indistinctly, then turns and fobs his way into is apartment. Standing with his eyes closed, he is transported back to his abuela's house by the smell of his favorite comfort food. Ella knows exactly how to comfort her no longer young nephew by making foods he had when he was young. Moving into the kitchen, he finds his crockpot sitting next to a small breadwarmer. Fumbling a bowl out of the cupboard he dishes up a hearty portion of picadillo and gets a small loaf of bread from the warmer and sits on the couch, immersing himself in memories of his abuela's fragrant kitchen. No matter how mean the kids at school were to the small long haired boy, Abuela Rosa never complained about the dirty or torn clothing, she would sit him down with some food and let him talk about his day.

Slowly his head sinks back and the bowl falls from his hand as he falls asleep in his abuela's kitchen once more.

* * *

INGREDIENTS:  
2 cups onion, diced

2 cups green pepper, seeded and finely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil for sauteing

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 pounds ground beef

3 large roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

1 teaspoon cumin, ground

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (The OPTIONAL, highly controversial, ingredient!)

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 cup green olives, chopped

1/3 cup raisins

1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper (to taste)

Saute onion and green pepper in olive oil in a large frying pan. Saute about 5 minutes, until the onion is softened, then add the garlic and ground beef.

Mash the onion and green pepper into the sauteing meat and cook until the meat is browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, cumin, cinnamon, cloves (optional) and oregano. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add olives and raisins and simmer 5 minutes longer. Salt and pepper to taste.

And one of the main differences between cuban bread and other breads is there is butter or lard mixed into the dough instead of a vegetable oil or shortening. It is not like focaccia it is a regular loaf type bread.

* * *

Steph's POV

* * *

"Hm, not too bad."

"Are you sure this is ok? I mean, it has *chocolate* and everything..."

"Yes, dear. The muesli is off the approved list, the chocolate is a good quality dark and the sweetening agents are stevia and erythritol, also off the approved list."

"But it tastes *good*!"

"Well, I do try. Good nutrition has to be appealing, otherwise it is useless and people keep trying to cheat and that makes a positive change impossible."

* * *

Homemade Sweet Dark Chocolate  
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped  
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder  
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp coconut oil  
1/4 cup erythritol (powdered, preferably) OR other sweetener  
20 drops stevia extract  
Optional: 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or other flavouring

Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper

In a medium saucepan, combine chocolate, cocoa powder, butter or oil, and erythritol or other sweetener. Stir over low heat until sweetener has dissolved and mixture is smooth.

Off heat, stir in stevia and any other extracts or flavorings.

Spread in pan and chill in refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours. Lift parchment paper out of pan and cut into small chunks with a sharp knife.

Store in fridge or freezer until needed.

To make granola bars or cookies without drowning the muesli with sugar, melt the sweetened dark chocolate and stir in muesli - wwwdotgermandelidotcom/Seitenbacher-Muesli-No8-High-Fiber-Breakfast is my favorite one that is purchased, or you can simply make your own choices out of the bulk dried fruits, nuts and flakes from a health food store. For bars, spread on parchment in a baking tin, for cookies dollop out in 2 tablespoon balls and flatten slightly. Let cool and cut the bars, or bag the cookies in a zip closure bag.


	2. Chapter 2 Pudding!

Pudding!

"Pop open the boxes, time to eat." Lester comes into the cave from the cold Afghan highland night rubbing his hands together to get some warmth back into them. Tank grunts and pulls his boot knife out to pop the large staples.

"Jackpot!" Lester leans in and grabs for the menu 7, and holds it tightly as he reaches in and grabs the menu 21 and tosses it to Ranger, "Trade you my hold out dried fruit bar for your dairy shake" as he reaches into one of the small pouches on his vest and dangles a small brown retort pouch temptingly.

"Done." Ranger replies curtly, sorting out the small package of vanilla shake powder and trading it for a small granola bar. "I don't see how you can eat that crap."

Lester grabs his canteen cup out of his pack and quickly dumps his vanilla shake, his hot cocoa, the coffee and creamer into the bottom and seals a cup of water into his beverage bag. He plops the retort pouch of brisket and the beverage bag into the flameless heater, adds water and the salt packet and props it up against a rock on the ground next to where he plopped down. "I eat it because I like the taste. It may not be Abuela's flan, but it beats not having it."

A woobie covered lump in the back of the cave groans and complains "And some people would like to get some sleep before they have to get up. Is there a 22 in the box? I was told I got dibs out of this case because I got stuck with the damned pork patty last time." Bobbie sits up, gets up and shuffles over, a large woodland lump with a face peeking out the top. Tank rummages and pulls out a Chicken and Dumplings meal, and grabs the Buffalo Chicken meal for himself.

"I would kill for an Ella dinner right now." Tank's low voice rumbled and everybody made assorted sounds of agreement. "I miss her Thai Steak Salad ... hell, I miss fresh food we don't have to beg, steal or buy. Though that pomegranite chicken and rice thing we had last week when we conferenced the village elders was great. I bet she can make us something like that when we get home."

" I am going to beg her to make flan ... " Lester looked up from dumping the water into the cup and stirring. The smell of chocolate filled the small cave. A click hiss and flicker of light and smell of burning sugar overlaid it.

"What the hell are you doing, Santos?!"

"Making it into creme brule."

Ranger gave the tiniest sigh and rolled his eyes. Lester may have Steph's sweet tooth, but at least he only blows cars up deliberately.

Ranger Pudding is a mix of chocolate hot beverage powder, coffee whitener, instant coffee packets and if available crumbled cookies. Occasionally if you get fancy you sprinkle the top with sugar from the sugar packets and heat up the top to burn the sugar into creme brulee with a lighter.

MRE - Meal, Ready to Eat, also called The Triple Lie, Meals Rejected by Ethiopians and over the last 35 or so years have come in various 'menus' and formats. SOme are dehydrated and you add hot water some are ready to eat and you use a plastic bag with a dry chemical pouch you add water to to heat up. There are several youtube channels of people opening/unboxing the various rations and exploring and even eating them. Some guys have even opened and eaten WW2 rations... eeeew.

Woobie - technically it is a thin quilted bit of padding that you use to line a waterproof poncho if it is really cold, but they are the ultimate comfy woobie blanket. They are great, I have a couple I keep in my momvan for napping on the road, and I even have one that I use as a comforter on my bed that still has this ineffable machine oil/ozone/submarine funk from being used for 20 years of deployments by my husband. I love that smell, it is as integral to him back when he was active duty as Bvlgari is to Ranger.

With a long lifetime military background as an Army brat, and having lived with assorted members of the Rangers and SEALs and being married to a sailor and living in an area that has frequent storms causing massive power and service outages, I have way too much personal experience with various forms of MREs. Trust me, they can range from reasonably OK to so bad I wouldn't feed them to the prisoners in GITMO ... This story I chose sort of randomly to use the available MRE menu from 2010, though realistically there is stuff in the supply system that is easily that old, I know last major power outage FEMA issued us MREs we had a case from 2008 in 2014. Blargh. That was not a good year for food, but it beats going hungry or having to forage.


	3. Chapter 3 Happy Yule!

Happy Yule!

Ella puttered around her kitchen humming along with the **music** playing on the radio. Measuring out ingredients for one of the few 'junk food days' allowed at Rangeman, she mutters to herself - flour, check ... candied **fruit** , check... sugar, check ... eggs, check and check... Sipping at the crema de vie or Cuban **egg nog** , she started mixing the stiff dough for the **stollen**. Luis bustled in, stripping off his **mittens** and **homemade scarf** and putting down the extra bulbs not needed to update the strings of holiday **lights**.

"So, my love, what is for **dinner** tonight?" sniffing the air with appreciation.

Ella slapped his hands away from the **candy bowl** "You are going to spoil your dinner if you keep snacking. I made cedar planked salmon with wild rice and green beans almandine."

"You spoil us, dearest. Are there enough baked apples for both Stephanie and us?"

"Of course. Ranger made sure that I knew Stephanie was going to be joining him, and that she would have dessert. I also made plenty of whipped cream to go along with the apples."

* * *

Crème de Vie (Cuban Egg Nog) Recipe

Makes about 5 cups, or two and a half bottles.

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

6 egg yolks

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 tsp. vanilla

½ cup white rum

1) Mix the sugar and water together over very low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves – about 3 minutes. It has to be just low enough so that the sugar doesn't caramelize, but makes a thick sugary water.

2) Put the egg yolks in a blender and mix with the condensed milk.

3) Slowly add the evaporated milk and mix completely.

4) Flavor with the vanilla.

5) Pour the mixture into the sugar-water and mix together.

6) Finally stir in the rum (as a preservative).


End file.
